Capture 77 Prepared By Guillermo Saccomanno Conveyed As Physical Book
resist, I thought. That was what it meant to survive: to resist, I took the book out of my briefcase, I stood in front of the class, Once more I read: On ne tue point les idées, "
"" by Guillermo Saccomanno, Winner of theHammett Prize, Translated to English by Andrea G, Labinger, three times finalist of the PEN USA competition,
At the height of Videla's Argentina, the Government launched sevenyearcampaign against suspected dissidents and subversives, often known as the “Dirty War".
Between,and,people were killed, including opponents of the government as well as innocent victims, Enter Gómez, a gay highschool literature teacher who tries to keep a low profile as, one by one, his friends and students begin to disappear.
For the longest time I wasn't so sure about this book, . But since it kept popping out here and there, I decided to read it hahah, Turns out I enjoyed this a lot!!
It's a story of life without closure, Imagine a colleague of yours who didn't come to work one day, and the day after, and the day after.
. until you realize they probably will never come back, Such is the dread and suspense I get from reading this book, I had a tough time reading books last week but I keep coming back to this because I can't wait to find out what happens next
I googled what "On ne tue point les idées" means.
. . Apparently it's in French and in English, it translates to "Men can be beheaded, Ideas cannot. " The second novel from Saccomanno in English translation is a much tamer affair than the comic take on Dantes Inferno, the exuberant monster Gesell Dome.
A snapshot of the seventies inside the Argentine Videla regime, the terrortickled lead Gómez relates tales of past acquaintances, among them two young revolutionaries, an OAP skirtchaser, a macho muchacho cop lover, and a neighbour into hairburning occult practices, while relating his own erotic adventures in the realm of nubile youths.
An inventive, pensive, and comic series of scenes and remembrances, the novel evokes the quotidian terror experienced when living under a corrupt and violent regime.
As Western democracy arseplummets into the new autocracy, with postBrexit UK the first banana republic sans the bananas, these sorts of novels are astute reminders of things we already know, and have no power to change.
Well this is my second novel with Guillermo Saccomanno as the author after I started reading his monumental epic sitelinkGesell Dome this autumn.
And while I did not find time enough to finish this earlier work I happened to pick up this one this month.
This was one of the new releases by Open Letter publisher this year, The plot and the narrative structure in this book is wholly different than the earlier novel, While the previous novel was like 'a raging sea of souls, tenuous and disenchanted, sinking into the mortal quagmire of reflections of their reeking souls, tenebrous and culpable', this one novel is indeed 'a savage indictment of a totalitarian regime, told in hallucinatory prose from the pen of a writer who has a penchant for a style that is wholly original and inventive'.
In all versimilitude, this novel tells the story of a Buenos Aires in, in the darkest days of the Videla dictatorship.
The story is told through flashbacks and recollections of a gay, highschool literature teacher who has a unique penchant for Oscar Wilde and one night hookups with his male friends.
The story goes into great lengths detailing his sexual preferences and if it were not for the uniquely structured plot this would have been mistaken for a LGBT novel.
And one common running theme are the political atrocities committed on young people and students, and 'the poltical watch dog always running around in the streets in green Falcons' always on the brink of malevolence running a reign of terror through the streets.
There are several other characters with their stories sidewinding alongside the main plot which is told thirty years later in the form of recollections.
What with the presence of a randy and lecherous old poet who happens to be the narrator's friend, and his illicit affair with one of his students what with a semblance of the supernatural and the occult that makes its presence in one of their nightly liaisions what with the presence of two young dissidents one happens to be a lesbian, BTW! that seek shelter in the narrator's place and their intemperate liaisions what with the homosexual relationship that arises between a homophobic cop and the narrator that seeks to engulf the latter in a moral and political conundrum, this novel makes for a wonderful rollercoster ride through the dark depths of human souls.
Highly recommended! Though written inthis has only just been published in English,
This is Buenos Aires inunder the Videla regime, Green Ford Falcons hover ominously on every street corner, and police beat or imprison people for no apparent reason, and yet the residents of Buenos Aires try to go about their normal business.
But looking the other way eventually becomes an untenable proposition for the protagonist, secondary school teacher, Gómez, A student gets taken by gunpoint from his class, and he finds himself involved with a homophobic cop, Before long two young dissidents show up seeking refuge at his apartment, and he is more involved then he ever thought he could be.
As attractive a premise as it seems, I found Saccomannos writing did not hold my attention fascinating as a series of occasional vignettes, but with little to hold them together.
is narrated decades after the events of the story, to an unnamed listener, and it's easy to forget that, as they rarely drop that wall.
There's a point pageof my copy where Gomez suddenly recalls a past atrocity from the start of the "Great Damage", and the way its rendered was so artful and felt so real.
In a moment, "the past wrapped around me like a mouthful of fire that destroyed everything, like those bombs, the dark smoke clouds rising from the puddles of gasoline and blood.
. . My memory never left me alone, " Yet just as quickly as it began, he forces himself to look away and stop thinking about the atrocities he's witnessed, like a pair of magnets attracting and repelling.
starts so strong, I didn't know much about this period of Argentina's history, and I imagine the more I knew the richer the text would be, but I still found it vivid and disturbing.
The description of his lonely nightwandering, particularly the start of the second chapter, was particularly affecting, I thought it dragged a touch in the middle with some of the subplots, particularly De Franco's story, but the ending was absolutely perfect.
I have mixed feelings aboutand I'm not sure I know why, I like the author and the novel is well written, The story is intense, sad, personal, and political, What's not to like Although it will sound strange, for me, at times, the story seemed too personal, For a significant section of the novel, the author uses a literary device to move the story forward, A central character reveals in depth the very personal and sexual correspondence of two other characters in the story, Although it makes no real sense, it made me see the character as a voyeur and myself as an uncomfortable participant.
I don't believe that was the author's intent and attribute my discomfort to my personal idiosyncrasies,
So, a very powerful book that will no doubt have an emotional impact on any serious and sensitive reader.
Wow this novel, what a stunner! Historical noir set mainly during the Dirty War in Argentina, We follow Gomez, a gay former high school literature professor now in his's as he recalls the events of the novel fromyears earlier while he's in his's.
Gomez serves as both protagonist of his own story and as a conduit for the stories of other victims of "the terror" of the Videla dictatorship that he meets and talks with.
Lots of sudden hops between stories and back and forth in time, but the book never feels hard to follow due to the vividness of the writing.
Lots of thrillingly David Lynchian, surrealist scenes, Tense and brutal with a bit of the occult thrown in for good measure, this book really brings home the fear and paranoia brought about by life under a murderous autocrat.
A great read. Tan increíble como necesario,, Argentina. One year earlier, Videla became president after the coup that deposed Isabel Peron, The story of the terror and violence of those days is told through the memories of professor Gomez, who in his midfifties back then witnessed women and students being beaten and killed, adults and children being taken on the streets, the pain of the parents, the suspicion hanging on everyone's head, and the grey, suffocating fear permeating every aspect of life.
Gomez is a selfproclaimed coward, indecisive and needy for love and attention, and yet with small gestures, he tries to help those around him and show some kindness to the desperate souls he meets, even though by the end he is sure he couldn't really save anyone, or redeem himself of the times he presented not to see.
But at least he has this he can tell the full story of those people, tell all the truth he could never voice back then.
The book is beautifully melancholic, and does a nice job entwining historical events to very personal moments featuring doomed relationships, the clash between generations, and the inner contradictions of human beings.
and a half, It's aftera. m. , I'm tired, and so my words will have to wait except for this: one of the best books I've read this year.
More to come,
.Excelente descripción de un momento nefasto en nuestra historia, I gotpages into this book and realized that the reason I'm not reading so much this week is that I'm not motivated to read this book.
The topic is interesting to me, but I don't feel that there is enough explanation at the beginning to explain the context of the raids.
More, the style of narrator telling his story to someone else isn't working for me, I need quotation marks and I really don't need paragraphs that go on for four pages with no break,stars. This was more political and historical than I anticipated, This is not a bad book, In fact, there are some parts I really enjoyed, but my disappointment stems from the execution of the story, In, we are following Gomez, an English teacher in Argentina during the dictatorship of Videla, He is gay, and begins to have a relationship with a policeman, Several of his former students join various guerrilla groups and he ends up taking in a few of these youngsters as they fear for their safety.
Saccomanno does an admirable job of creating an atmosphere where you were constantly in fear of being picked up by the government and never seen from again.
I truly wish the book spent more time with Gomez and his individual storyline, as I found the subplots less compelling.
The way the book is presented, we jump back and forth in time and this also impacted my enjoyment of the novel.
Not a particularly memorable read for me, unfortunately,./ is Guillermo Saccomanno's reflection of life under authoritarian rule in Argentina in thes,
Professor Gomez is a literature professor in Buenos Aires who seems agnostic to the political world around him, thinking little beyond an attempt to survive the military police state that has risen up around him.
As he watches his students, friends, and colleagues all with varying degrees of revolutionary and Peronist leanings be disappeared by the military junta, Gomez reflects on his own terror and inability to "do" something.
Gomez' experience is complicated more by his secret sexual relationship with Walter, a police officer with sympathies with the ruling junta.
As terror and fear rain down around him, Gomez comes to terms with his position in a society that is spinning increasingly out of control.
Saccomanno's writing is dark and cerebral and reads much like a Dostoevsky novel with a Latin flair.
But the writing in the book can also be challenging to follow and clunky at times, a defect that might be caused by style or translation or both.
Prior knowledge of Argentinian history helps with this read, but overall is worth it, Falcons,
Paranoia amp
Homosexuals I tried to likeby Guillermo Saccomanno, I felt the story had a ton of potentiala queer protagonist describing the aura of fear and paranoia that saturated the time in Argentina when people were disappearing left and right.
Unfortunately, the plot and narrative themselves were very scattered and slow, and I kept getting lost and finding my attention wandering off the page.
Theres a lot going on in this Argentinian novel set in Buenos Aires in, during the days of the ironfisted dictatorship that terrorized its own people.
Thousands of people were imprisoned, tortured and “disappeared, ” The story is told in flashbacks by a man whos in hiss now and who had been in his fifties when these events occurred.
Our main character is a gay highschool literature teacher, He tries to keep a low profile as, onebyone, his friends and students disappear, Its risky to go out evenings, but he picks up men in bars and bathhouses, Several times he and companions are beaten up hes even hospitalized once, Often the cops take their money, Another time he realizes that one of the cops beating them is gay too and they begin an affair a dangerous situation for both individuals.
Parents of the missing come to the main character to find out where their loved ones are and if they are still alive.
So the main character walks a fine line between asking questions and asking TOO MANY questions and his policeman lover walks the fine line of giving some answers and giving away TOO MUCH information.
The police/military drive green Ford Falcons which become symbols of terror and evil, They spill out of the car and beat people with rifle butts and spirit them away, The victims are usually young rebels, men or women, and most often they are never seen again, The main character sees these vehicles pull up and take people away almost nightly, Many of the antigovernment conspirators carry cyanide pills with them, so the first thing the police do is to stick their fingers in their victims mouths to be sure theyre not taking a pill.
They are tortured until they give up names of other antidictator associates any names will do and the process repeats.
Suspicion and paranoia are everywhere, Building superintendents are particularly regarded as informers, so any interaction with them is fraught with anxiety,
The main character takes supreme risks when a friend leaves his pregnant girlfriend to hide at his apartment.
Shes actively wanted by the police, Interspersed through the story are bits of terror as when parents despairing of their lost son receive a package on their doorstep.
In despair some people turn to psychics and spiritualists to speak with their lost loved ones, Families frequently have pictures of the Blessed Ceferino, a modern Argentinian Indian saint who has a cultlike following, See Wikipedia entry.
Although its unrelated to the current dictatorship, one of the characters has a father who was involved in the notoriousArgentina Air Force bombing and strafing of Buenos Aires Plaza de Mayo where thousands of people had gathered.
More thanwere killed and countless people wounded, The planes had the words “Christ Conquers” painted on them, The incident is mentioned a couple of times as an atrocious example of military action against a nations own people.
There are two extended substories, One is that a friend of the main character meets with him to tell him of his ongoing affair with a former student who is married to an invalid husband.
That couples son is missing,
Another substory is his reading of his pregnant guests love letters, They are not letters to her current male lover, but to a former lesbian lover,
There is some good writing, The main character tells us that “terror and laughter are incestuous siblings” and that, because he has money inherited from his mother and doesnt really have to work, he “feels like a tourist in a concentration camp.
” As he does his nightly prowling hes subject to “obsessive wandering syndrome” and he says “hospitals and prisons smell the same.
” Of the city he writes “A softboiled Buenos Aires was Paris in a downpour, ”
I liked this book a lot, I dont want to say “I enjoyed it,” because how can you say that when you have descriptions of such real terror I learned a lot
about the situation in Argentina at that time.
Using the fiftyyear rule, its almost a historical novel that gives you an excellent feel for what life was like living under that reign of terror.
The author b,is a journalist, novelist and short story writer, He has won two Dashiell Hammett Awards, one for this book,,
Top photo a's Ford Falcon used by police in Argentina from imcdb, org
The Blessed Ceferino from epicpew, com
photo of the bombed Plaza de Mayo from alchetron, com
The author from lareviewofbooksorg